Even when schools across Canada shifted to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, Rob Hammond’s autistic daughter attended in-person classes in their Ontario cottage country town.

The Parry Sound, Ont., school had made learning spaces available for students with special needs so they could learn and socialize with their classmates and teachers.

Now in Grade 12, Hammond’s daughter is among hundreds of high school students in the community whose only option is online learning for the foreseeable future. Their old school was partially demolished and a new school for students from junior kindergarten to Grade 12 that had been scheduled to open on Sept. 2 remains closed due to construction delays.

The situation has left parents and students angrily searching for answers, from what wen

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